


A Completely and Entirely Fool Proof Job Application

by Weevilo707



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Backstory, Canon Compliant, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, angus joining the bureau, rogue angus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 11:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14519415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707
Summary: Angus knew that even though he was more than qualified for a position, because of his age most people wouldn't ever consider hiring him unless he did something really spectacular. Sometimes not even then, sometimes he just had to take matters into his own hands and start working on a case on his own.The Bureau was not an exception to this rule.'A thorn in their side' might've been a bit of an understatement.





	A Completely and Entirely Fool Proof Job Application

Angus McDonald loved a good mystery. In fact, he’d go so far as to say a good mystery was his most favorite thing.

Or well, his second most favorite thing. His  _ most _ favorite thing, past a good mystery, past the Caleb Cleveland novels, past his recently dearly departed grandpa, was  _ solving _ a good mystery. That moment when all the pieces fit together and everything made sense.

And so far this was a very good mystery, but he didn’t feel close to solving it in the slightest.

It had started with that rather eventful job on the Rockport limited. He hadn’t realized it at the time though, because he’d been so caught up in the mystery of the Rockport Slayer. The fact was that those three men he’d met there were a part of something much larger. He just didn’t have any idea as to what yet.

It wasn’t until a few cases he’d gotten while staying in Neverwinter caught his attention that he made the connection to them. There were people missing, people who’d stopped showing up for their jobs, or rooms in houses that were suddenly empty but so clearly lived in.

But whenever anyone tried to name those people, they had no idea who they were, or why anyone would have ever been there to begin with. When they tried to think of who they were, there was nothing but static.

Static very, very similar to the kind Angus had heard those three on the train talking in. The static that didn’t seem to be any sort of issue for them, static that was keeping information hidden.

And Angus  _ needed _ to get to the bottom of this mystery.

The only problem was that the very nature of his search seemed to be a pretty futile one. They were obviously a part of some organization or something that dealt with hiding away and blocking information. The closer he got though, the less he could think, and not being able to think wasn’t constructive to solving a mystery.

He tried to find more on those three, and his search there hadn’t been completely fruitless at least. Taako had been the easiest one to find information on. Even still the only real thing there was a traveling cooking show he’d ran for a number of years before tragedy struck. Magnus took a little more digging, but after a bit Angus found some things about him leading a small revolution in the now mostly abandoned town of Raven’s Roost. The only thing he could find on Merle were the names and whereabouts of a few relatives, but nothing real important.

None of that helped him now. None of that told him where they currently were. It was so frustrating, it was like they’d gone and dropped off the face of the earth.

Luckily for him though, he had a lot more free time now that he didn’t have any real obligations to his grandpa. He also had a pretty decent inheritance that made traveling after any small lead he found easy. 

When searching for those three boys started turning up nothing but dead ends, he changed his methods. They’d said they had been part of an organization that was after incredibly powerful and dangerous items, so he started looking for those instead.

He had a couple false leads at first, which was to be expected when looking for something so vague and with no real parameters. He’d never seen exactly what kind of power the item they had been searching for had, so he didn’t have a very good gauge of what to look for.

After four or five attempts though, he heard about something going on in Goldcliff. Some outlaw who’d started wielding these incredible powers of nature. It was the best lead he had at the moment, and Goldcliff wasn’t too far from where his last dead end had left him, so he headed over.

When he got there, the huge trust building in the center of town was covered in vines. Which, well, if some item was causing that, Angus would categorize it as both powerful and dangerous without a second thought.

He’d been staring up at the towering building, trying to judge how many stories the vines had made their way up when he saw it. It started off as a small speck in the distance, but it was rapidly coming closer and getting bigger. Not  _ much _ bigger though.

Angus didn’t know what it was, and his eyes almost didn’t want to focus on it, but it was weird and coming towards a very powerful artifact. Not giving himself time to second guess it, he estimated about where it would land and started running off in that direction. Luckily it seemed intent to land pretty close, off in one of the back alleys of the city.

It was a strange, almost glass looking ball. He couldn’t imagine quite what it could be used for, but then he saw a door start to open in its side and ducked back behind a couple of trash cans.

He almost gave himself away immediately when he saw who was inside. Three very familiar figures, a human, an elf, and a dwarf strolled out of the strange ball. They stood there goofing for a moment, and Angus debated whether or not to make his presence known. Before he could decide though they started off towards the trust. He was about to go follow them when he glanced back at the strange glass ball.

This was probably their way to get to and from whatever strange organization they worked for. He knew they would be at the bank, but he didn’t know if he’d get another chance to look in that thing for some clues.

Then the door was closing, and making a split second decision, Angus ran inside.

It was a rather plain interior, but considering the size it made sense. It was some type of transportation, but it was so small it’d be pretty uncomfortable to spend too much time in there. There were four seats, and some kind of handle, and a couple of power bar wrappers.

Which was a little frustrating. The good news was he hadn’t spent long enough in there to lose track of Taako, Merle and Magnus. He started to move to see if he could figure out how to open the door again and follow them.

When suddenly the ball shifted, and Angus was knocked off his feet as he saw it rise up off the ground.

Oh- oh gods. Oh gods it was rising up really fast. It wasn’t long before he was up over the buildings and then up over the whole of Goldcliff. He thought it would start to shift to go wherever it was their headquarters was (which, he’d been meaning to find that so he guessed this was certainly a way) but it just kept going  _ up. _ Angus had never considered himself particularly afraid of heights, but dear god he’d never been this  _ high _ before. His legs felt like jelly and he couldn’t get them to work enough to stand and put himself in one of the chairs. Instead he scooted over enough to cling to the base of one for some sort of stability.

Looking down at the slowly shrinking world was terrifying, but it took a while for him to get himself together enough to look away. When he finally did, he looked up.

And he saw the moon. Or well, one of them.

It was approaching fast, and as fast as this ball was going it was still much sooner than it should be. Or no, the moon must’ve been lower than it actually looked. It was- it wasn’t- their base was on the moon.

Angus felt like he was fighting through static to think those thoughts, and if he wasn’t so terrified he’d smile at how close he was to figuring this all out.

He watched as some sort of aperture in the moon opened, and the ball he was in neatly rolled into some sort of strange hanger. Once it finally stopped moving Angus took a deep breath and forced himself to stand back up on shaking legs. He looked out through the ball at the area he was in now, and something about this place was giving him a slight headache. It felt like static whenever he tried to think too hard or look at certain things.

This was definitely the right place.

There was only one person in this hanger right now, an adult human man who was drinking from a small flask. He looked like he worked there, so if Angus had to guess he was taking the moment alone to get a quick drink. The man hadn’t seemed to notice him at all, but Angus hadn’t been able to see into the ball from the outside either, even though he didn’t have any problem seeing out. It had to be some sort of one way glass.

Alright, so he just had to hide in here until this man left. As soon as he was alone he could sneak out and get a look around this place without anyone knowing and-

And the door was open.

Before he could even try to hide (where, he had no idea. Behind one of the chairs? Sure he was small but he wasn’t  _ that  _ small) the man turned rather suddenly, like he hadn’t expected the door to open. For a moment he just stared at Angus, a look of shock on his face, and Angus could  _ see _ him trying to piece together what was happening in his head.

“Um, hello there sir. We’re on the moon,” he said. 

“Yeah, uh,” the man said, and Angus saw him take a quick glance down at the flask still in his hand. There was a flash of worry on his face, and Angus could almost hear him thinking ‘what did I just drink.' “How’d- how’d you get in there kiddo?” the man asked after a moment.

“I saw it fall from the sky, and the door was open. Before I could get out though it started flying away,” Angus explained as he carefully walked out of the weird ball. He didn’t want to stick around in there for too much longer, or else this guy might shut the door and send him back down. None of what he said was a lie. People tended to give him a lot more leniency when they thought he was just a kid who’d wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Ah, that… makes sense?” the man said, watching him carefully. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, before taking another quick swing from his flask, capping it and shoving it back into his pocket afterwards.

“Excuse me sir, where are we? Besides the moon that is, I’ve already figured that one out,” he asked. He was wandering around the room right now, and this whole place made him a little dizzy. There were a whole bunch of those weird transportation balls, and some fancy looking machinery. There was also a door, which Angus figured lead further into whatever base he’d found himself in.

“We’re um, someplace pretty dangerous actually, but don’t worry! I’m going to call my boss right now and we’ll get you back home in no time, okay?” the man said, and Angus nodded. He had no intention of leaving, but things went better when you let people believe you would go along with them.

As he said, the man pulled out a stone of farspeech, quickly turning it to a frequency. Angus made to look like he was checking out the whole room. Just a curious little boy here, nothing suspicious at all.

“Uh, Madame Director?” he said into the stone of farspeech, glancing back over at Angus as he spoke.

“Yes Avi? Have the reclaimers successfully left for their mission?” a woman’s voice came through the stone. Reclaimers, that must be those three’s official title in this organization.

“Oh, oh right. Yeah they’re good uh, all smooth sailing on that end,” the man, his name apparently Avi said. “But um, we kinda have a situation in the hanger,” he added. He glanced over at Angus again, who was innocently looking out through the large windows of the hanger.

“What kind of situation?” the woman on the other end asked, sounding rather cautious about this already. It made sense, Avi had said she was his boss and had called her ‘Madame Director.' Angus figured she was the head of this whole secret organization.

“There’s a- well, there’s a kid in here,” Avi said, sounding like he had no idea how to break that to her. Angus took a few steps closer to that door.

“Excuse me?” that Madame Director lady asked after a small stretch of silence.

“Like, a child. Um, hey kid, what’s your name?” Avi asked, turning back to him.

“My name is Angus sir,” Angus told him pleasantly. Once he told him Avi turned his back to continue talking to the Director, and Angus continued moving for the door.

“There’s a kid, his name is Angus. He somehow managed to get into the Reclaimer’s transit canon after they left and now he’s just… up here,” Avi said. This time there was a much longer stretch of silence, and Angus swore he could hear the sound of something being poured on the other end of the line. The adults here certainly liked to drink it seemed.

“Okay. Okay, keep him there. I’ll be right down and we’ll- we’ll get him back to his home,” the Director was saying. Avi wasn’t looking at him, and he could tell the conversation was coming to an end. As silently as he could, Angus turned the handle and opened the door. Slipping through, he could hear Avi affirming that he would watch him, and then just as quiet as he’d been opening it, he shut the door again.

The second the door was shut, Angus took off running. He was on some kind of quad, and there were these strange dome buildings everywhere. It was annoying the way he was looking around and he could tell he wasn’t quite seeing everything. Or no, he was seeing things, but he couldn’t understand them.

Still, he wasn’t going to get caught before he could figure out exactly what was going on here.

Knowing that Mr. Avi was going to notice he was gone pretty immediately, Angus headed to the closest building and ducked inside.

The building he found himself in seemed to be rather open. There didn’t seem to be a lot of people around at the moment either, which was good for him. Still, he was careful to be as stealthy as possible and try to stay out of the way. Going through a large door, he didn’t have to be the world’s greatest detective to figure out what the purpose of this building must’ve been.

There was a large almost arena like space, with bleachers all along his side. There were a few people down in what had to be a training area. An old gruff looking dwarf man with an ax, and a dragonborn woman wielding a couple of daggers. They seemed pretty focused on the training dummies they were currently tearing apart and hadn’t noticed him yet.

Angus was about to go hide in the bleacher when he heard the door open behind him and swung around. He expected to see Avi there, having chased after him once he realized he was gone. Instead he looked up to see a very tall, rather intimidating looking orc woman. She had a huge crossbow on her back, and one of those bracers on her wrist. Avi had one too, now that he thought about it. He was curious to see if the two people down in the training area had them, but they were too far away and would require looking away from the orc woman.

She was staring down at him now, seeming to be going through the same befuddled confusion that Avi had when he’d first seen him in the sphere.

“Hello there ma’am, my name is Angus,” he said. Something that worked surprisingly often was pretending you were supposed to be there. Sure, it didn’t work all the time, but it was worth a shot.

“Uh, Killian,” the woman said, holding out a confused hand. Angus shook it politely, and he saw her take a glance at his wrist. Dang it, it seemed like those bracers were universal after all. “Whaaaat are you uh, doing here?” she asked, clearly suspicious. She wasn’t reaching for her weapon though, that was good.

“Oh, I’m just looking around,” he said, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. She nodded, and he could tell that she wasn’t buying it. 

“Uhuh, and uh, the director said you could be here?” she asked, and Angus nodded, carefully adjusting the concealed crossbow in his sleeve. It was like he was firing toothpicks compared to her weapon, but there was a lot to be said for the element of surprise.

“Yep! I was just with Mr. Avi and he was showing me around,” he said, hoping the lie would convince her. It didn’t look like it though, despite the way she was nodding.

“Right, how about we go find Avi then so he can keep showing you around, alright kiddo?” Killian said, reaching towards him. It was very clear that she intended to get a hand on him to make sure he wouldn’t go running off.

Before she could, Angus’s hand shot up and he fired off the concealed crossbow. He was being very careful not to hit anywhere important, even though he had a feeling it would take a lot more than a single mini crossbow bolt to take her out. Still, the shock of it hitting her in the shoulder sent her reeling back enough to Angus to dash around her.

“Ouch! What the fucking- Carey! Boyland!” Killian yelled, calling for those two down in the training area. Angus didn’t slow down enough to bother looking back, sprinting out the door and down the curved hallway. He ran into the next door he found, and this room was smaller. It seemed to be a more private training quarters. Most importantly though, it had a window.

He could hear yelling and running coming closer and closer down the hallway. Pushing open the window, Angus scrambled through. He dropped to a heap on the ground before getting to his feet and dashing off in the direction of the next building.

Angus was panting when he reached the next domed building. Before he could rest though, he heard Mr. Avi’s voice calling his name, clearly looking for him. Not thinking twice he ducked inside.

He was being more careful now, watching his back and staying hidden behind corners whenever he saw someone walking down a hallway. Which, with every person he saw he confirmed more and more than everyone here had those bracers on.

Maybe those were what allowed them to think and look past the static? It was the best guess he had at the moment, but he could hardly say it was certain. Whatever their purpose was though, they definitely seemed to be a mark of this organization. It was glaringly obvious without one that he wasn’t supposed to be here.

Well, that and also maybe the fact that he was a little boy. He knew hat made him stand out too, but there wasn’t much he could do about that. Besides wait that is, but he didn't have that kind of time. 

The building he was snooping around in now seemed to be some sort of main living area. He’d found several halls that were all lined with doors, and from the quick glances he could see when people stepped out of those doors the insides looked like bedrooms. At one point he found what looked like a cafeteria and immediately turned around. There were way too many people around there for him to hope to stay hidden.

Which is what he quickly decided for the rest of this building as well. Besides, while he could figure out some things by searching through the living areas, it was too much of a risk for too little information in his opinion.

Slipping out of that building, he didn’t immediately see those three from the training area or Avi. He quickly went and hid in a little secluded area of the quad. Taking this brief moment while he was in the clear, Angus tried to think of exactly what to do next.

There were still a few more domes, but it was pretty hard to tell them apart from the outside. He didn’t have much of a clue what they could be for until he was inside. Sometimes there were signs, and he was sure there were words on them, but most of the time his eyes slid past without reading them.

There was one building that stood out, both in the fact that it wasn’t a dome and had a very large sign that he could clearly read. That sign proclaimed it to be a Fantasy Costco, which was uh, odd, to say the least. Angus was fairly certain it was some sort of retail store, although why one of those was in some sort of big secret base on the moon, he couldn’t say for the life of him.

A part of him wanted to go inside to see what was going on with that. In the end though he felt like that wasn’t the most important mystery to deal with right now.

Angus spent about an hour or so hiding in his little spot in the quad. He didn’t want to stay in one place for too long, but he also needed some rest after all that running around. He made sure to keep careful watch to make sure no one was coming too close, and he didn’t see the four people who had to be looking for him now. Or well, five. That Madame Director lady Avi had been talking to must be looking for him too, but he didn’t know what she looked like.

Once an hour passed though he figured he should get a move on again. Edging around the backs of domes where people didn’t seem to go very often, he made his way over to a rather large one. Slipping inside, Angus instantly felt like he’d made the right choice with this one.

It was a library. A huge one, and without hesitation Angus ran to go hide in between the shelves. Oh, he could stay lost for a  _ while _ in here. 

Angus weaved through the mazes of shelves until he reached an area that seemed particularly abandoned. Then he started inspecting the kind of books here, one because there was no way he could resist in a library this big. Two because it was a very good way to see what kind of things this organization was focused on.

He spent most of the afternoon doing just that. Moving stealthily throughout the shelves, keeping low and ducking away whenever he heard footsteps close by. Most of the books here seemed to be magic and arcane focused, or at least the ones he could read were. Every so often he’d find one that seemed to be in a language he couldn’t understand. If he let himself stare at those for too long he started getting a headache.

It was pretty hard to resist pocketing a couple of the books, both the ones he could understand and the ones he couldn’t. Sure, most of the magic books were way beyond any sort of beginner skill level, but they just seemed so interesting. Still, he was currently on the run and hiding, so he couldn’t afford to bog himself down with heavy books.

As he spent time in the library, Angus went over everything he’d found out so far in his head. This organization was tracking down and gathering incredibly powerful magic items, and for some reason was using a form of magic to erase as much evidence of this from the world. 

It was possible that those missing people were members of this organization, or perhaps people this organization had taken out. But if that was the case, it didn’t explain why he could still remember Taako, Merle and Magnus, or why he could remember Jenkins. There was some other layer there that he hadn’t found yet.

He also didn’t know  _ why _ they were gathering these objects. When he met those three on the train it hadn’t seemed like they intended to do any harm with whatever they found. It was very possible that these people, though very, very sketchy, weren’t up to anything evil.

It was getting around dusk (or at least that was what Angus would guess. He’d never tried to tell time on the moon before) when he started edging back towards the more populated areas of the library. He was still staying out of sight, but it was probably a good idea to try to get a feel of what was going on now.

He was in time to peak out and see what looked to be several guards rush through the library and back outside again. There were a few moments of quiet before the people in the library started whispering amongst themselves again. Angus moved as close as he dared to try to listen in.

“Is something going on? What’s with all the security?” he heard someone whisper, and he quickly focused in on that particular conversation.

“I heard some kid managed to sneak onto the base, the director is losing her head trying to find him,” another person said.

“You mean like a goat?”

“No, like a human fucking child, why would there be a goat on the moon?” they said.

“I’d believe that before I believed there was a  _ kid _ up here. How would that even happen?” the first person said.

“I don’t know, but apparently he shot a regulator,” the second said. Angus wasn’t  _ happy _ about having to hurt someone, but the way they said it with such disbelief made him feel the smallest amount of pride.

“You’re full of bullshit. This is worse than when you thought the pringles factory was housing a —————  —————.” Angus frowned as the last part dissolved into static.

“You can’t have just one! That’s some kind of thrall right there,” they said.

“Whatever, if that  _ is _ the case, and I mean the kid thing. Not the pringles thing, that one’s stupid, are the regulators going after him now?”

“That’s what I heard.”

“Wait, are they going to, you know, like, kill him?” the first asked, sounding nervous.

“What? No, it’s a  _ kid. _ They’ll probably just feed him to the ————————.”

That damn static again. Angus would really like to know what it is they were planning to  _ feed him _ to, especially a thing that wouldn’t result in killing him.

Quietly Angus snuck away from the two people talking. Since he knew that there was a heightened search for him now he didn’t risk going through a door. Instead he made his way out a window, and this one was a little higher off the ground than the other one he’d used. He managed to land it without hurting himself though.

It did seem to be getting kind of dark now, although Angus wasn’t sure if it was from some sort of artificial day/night cycle, or if this based moved in such a way to emulate one. Either way, it was getting late, and he needed to find a place to stay for the night where he wouldn’t be found.

Cautiously, Angus headed over to the largest dome. He wasn’t too tired yet as not to explore a bit more, and from the looks of it this one seemed to be the most secured.

Maybe a little too secure. There were guards at the door and the windows were a bit too high for him to reach from the outside. Still, there had to be  _ some _ way for him to get in here. Now that he couldn’t get in easily he absolutely needed to.

Sticking low to the ground and hidden by the landscaping, he tried to think of something. He was starting to think he might as well give up when he saw the small grate, partially covered by a bush.

Getting down on his knees and pushing some of the branches aside, Angus pulled out a few patented detective tools. Little screwdrivers and bits of wires and such to help take things apart and undo locks.

And okay, maybe he had um,  _ confiscated _ them from a thief he’d caught in one of his first big cases, but they were still very useful to a detective. The bolts on the grate were a bit old and didn’t take much effort to unscrew. Quietly setting it aside, the air vent was big enough for him to crawl inside without any sort of issue. He wasn’t able to screw the grate back from the inside, but he moved it so it was leaning in front again. No one would notice it if they weren’t specifically looking.

With that, he started crawling further into the vents. It was a little claustrophobic, but every so often he’d come to another vent and could peak out into a room. There seemed to be mostly offices, and this definitely seemed to be the main work center of this organization.

He’d been slowly crawling around for about an hour when one of the vents opened to a hallway, and he could see and hear people out there.

“You mean to tell me  _ no one _ can find one little boy on this whole base?” a woman, tall and powerful looking asked. She was holding a large white staff and was wearing a blue, regal outfit. She looked completely in control, and she also looked at her wits end and tired.

Well, he guessed this was Madame Director.

“Sorry Director,” called it. “We’ve been looking everywhere, but ever since he got the drop on Killian with that arrow he’s just disappeared,” the dragonborn woman she was talking to said. He was a lot closer than he’d been last time, but this must’ve been the same one from the training area.

“Both Avi and Killian said he couldn’t be any older than  _ ten,” _ the director said, disbelief clear in her voice. Sure, Angus didn’t like when people underestimated him, but he could enjoy when the people who did try to dismiss him were proven wrong.

“Maybe he’s a weird looking gnome?” the dragonborn tried. The director sighed heavily, rubbing at her temple for a moment.

“Well, keep looking. We’ve had a careful watch on the hanger, no transport canons have been fired, so we know he’s still somewhere on this base,” the Director said. The dragonborn woman quickly nodded before sprinting off again. Once she was alone the director sighed again, shoulders slumping. She really looked exhausted now.

“Davenport, why can’t things be quiet for just, an hour. That’s all I’m asking, just one hour,” the Director said, and Angus felt kind of bad for her. Not bad enough that he was going to reveal himself, especially since they still might be planning on ‘feeding’ him to something, but he hoped this woman got some rest soon.

“Davenport!” someone said, and it took Angus a moment to see the gnome standing at her other side. That was um, kind of a weird answer. After a moment the Director sighed and started walking off again, and so Angus continued exploring the vents.

As he moved, it became clear that while this dome was big, there seemed to be even more of it going  _ down. _ So, once he had explored a good portion of the upper parts of the dome, that’s where he started to head. If there was something big and important, Angus would bet that it was hidden at the bottom of this place.

After a bit, he was starting to get tired. It had been a very busy day to say the least, and it was late. Making sure to stay out of sight from any of the vents, Angus curled up to sleep. An air vent was pretty high up there in most uncomfortable places he’d slept in while on the job before, but he wasn’t sure if it was quite number one.

When Angus woke up, it was to the sound of music.

Absolutely beautiful music, not too far off and reverberating through the air vents. Wiping the sleep from his eyes, Angus started towards the sound. Most of it was because he wanted to know what the cause of it was and why there was such wonderful music being played, but a small part of him just wanted to hear it clearer.

Eventually he came to the vent opening where the music was coming from. This vent was down on the floor, and when he looked into the room he couldn’t quite comprehend was he was seeing.

Literally. He could see this giant tank, and there was  _ something _ inside but he couldn’t comprehend  _ what _ it was. It was huge though, and when Angus focused hard sometimes he could see something that looked like a tendril? A tentacle?

After a moment his attention turned back to the music that seemed to be coming to a close. Looking around a bit more, he spotted what looked to be a half-elf bard. He was playing the violin with a somber expression, and it sounded absolutely beautiful. With one final note he brought the song to an end before sighing heavily and walking over to a desk.

Angus watched as he gathered up some papers, what seemed to be sheet music, and walked back over to the tank. He dropped them in, and Angus couldn’t see what had happened to the papers. It was like they dissolved or stopped existing or something.

And he couldn’t remember what the song he just heard sounded like.

It took him a second to realize that, but as he tried to recall it, it had been so pretty, he knew it had been so wonderful, there was nothing there. Nothing but static.

He  _ needed _ to get a closer look at that thing.

The bard had gone back over to his desk on the other side of the room, and there didn’t seem to be anyone else in here with him. Well, besides whatever was in that tank. It was a little harder undoing a vent grate from the inside, but luckily his fingers were small and he was able to finagle around enough to get it done.

As quietly as he could, Angus snuck over to the tank. His head pounded whenever he tried to look into it, he  _ knew _ this had to be the source of all this weird static. After a bit of looking, he found something odd on the side of the tank. There was what looked to be a small spigot, as well as a stack of cups.

Grabbing one of the cups, Angus turned the spigot and filled it up. There was some sort of weird, black fluid. It looked a little viscous, almost like thick ink or something.

“Whoa, what the fuck?”

Angus’s head shot up, and the half-elf had noticed him while he was checking out this strange liquid. He had stood up from his desk but hadn’t come at him yet.

“Hello sir, your music was really beautiful,” Angus said. He couldn’t remember what it sounded like, but he still felt like it deserved the compliment.

“Uh, thanks. How did you get in here? Wait, shit, is that the ———————— —————? Kid, I don’t- you don’t have the authority to drink that,” the bard said. He was starting to head over to him, but this room was huge.

He clearly didn’t want Angus drinking whatever this was, so without hesitation Angus downed the whole thing.

“Wait, shit!” the bard yelled, running at him now. Angus started running back to the vent, and all at once several things happened.

He could remember the music again, and there was some relief in that. In fact, all of the static in his mind seemed to go away. He could remember the insignia he’d seen all over the base, and that Taako, Merle and Magnus had said they’d been going after a Grand Relic.

Before he dived back into the vent, he took a glance up at the huge tank, and he could see what was inside of it now. It must’ve been what those people had been talking about feeding him to. A gigantic, jellyfish like creature with thousands of dangling, elegant tentacles.

The Voidfish.

Without hesitation Angus scurried back into the vents. He saw the bard try to follow in after him, but he ended up stopping after getting about halfway in. Angus was far enough back and it was dark enough that even with the dark vision he assumed the bard had, he shouldn’t be able to see him. He could still hear the man though, and he sounded like he was struggling a bit before sighing heavily once again.

Then there was some fumbling, and Angus could hear the click of a stone of farspeech.

“Uh, Director? We kinda got a situation down here,” he said. Sure enough, Angus could hear the voice of that woman he’d seen the night before coming through the stone.

“What kind of situation? Johann I’m sorry but if it’s not urgent it’s going to have to wait,” she said, and he guessed this guy’s name was Johann.

“Uh, I’d say it’s a little urgent. Somehow like, a kid got into the voidfish chamber? Well actually I’m pretty sure he came through the vents now,” he said.

“Wait, a child?” the Director asked, suddenly sounding interested. “You saw the boy? Do you have him with you now?”

“Yeah, well, he’s not really with me anymore. Wait, is this a thing that’s happening? Why is there a kid up here?” Johann asked, and Angus guessed not  _ everyone _ knew about him yet.

“I’ll explain later. Where did the boy  _ go?” _ the director pressed.

“Um, back into the vents. It’s kinda um, well, no one  _ told me _ there was some kid sneaking around the base. I wasn’t on the lookout for like, toddlers running around, okay?” he said, and Angus wanted to object to that, but he kept quiet.

“Johann, did something happen?” the director asked, sounding like she didn’t want to actually know the answer.

“He kinda like, uh, drank some of the voidfish ichor.”

“He did  _ what?”  _ the Director snapped. Yeah, they definitely didn’t want him doing that.

“I tried to stop him, I didn’t see him until he already had a cup in his hand,” Johann defended himself.

“It’s not- alright. Alright. Thank you for informing us about this. We’ll need to redouble our efforts on finding this boy. Is that everything?” the Director asked, and Angus got the feeling that he wouldn’t be able to hide for too much longer.

“Uh, well actually, there’s one more thing,” Johann said.

“What, Johann?” the Director asked, sounding very exhausted.

“Could um, could someone come down here and help me? I kinda tried to follow the kid into the vents and uh, I’m stuck now,” he asked. Angus had to cover his mouth to keep himself from laughing at that. It was kind of mean, but it was also pretty funny.

“We’ll send someone down,” the Director said after a long, heavy sigh. Once he heard that and was sure Mr. Johann wasn’t going to be stuck there for hours or anything like that Angus started off again.

Alright, he’d made a huge milestone there. That voidfish creature, it was for sure the thing that had been causing all of that static. Now that he’d drank that strange ‘ichor’ it wasn’t an issue anymore.

This organization was looking for Grand Relics. Taako, Merle and Magnus had called it the Bureau of Balance.

There had been books in the library on things that seemed related to those grand relics, the books he hadn’t been able to look at clearly. Of course, he still wasn’t sure what the purpose of this whole organization was, or why they were gathering the relics and hiding this kind of information. They seemed very dangerous, and he couldn’t say he liked being on the other end of having all of that information blocked.

As he moved around the vents, eventually he figured he was pretty close to the center of the building. There he found what looked like an office. It was set apart somewhat from the other ones though. It was larger and a bit more extravagant, the chair at the huge study desk looked more like a throne than anything.

And in that chair, head in her hands, was the director.

For a moment Angus thought she was alone, but then he saw that same gnome man from before off to the side. It was only the two of them though, and well, Angus knew he couldn’t hide forever. They also had his way off this base blocked.

And besides, he didn’t want to leave until he knew fully what was going on here.

So, very carefully he undid the vent grate and crawled out.

“Davenport!” the gnome shouted as he started crawling out of the now open vent. The Director had called him Davenport, but that was also the only thing Angus had heard him say so far. He wasn’t sure what that was about, but he guessed now wasn’t quite the time to question it.

“Davenport, not now,” the Director said, not bothering to look up.

“Davenport, Davenport!” Davenport insisted, pointing at Angus.

“Hello Madame Director,” Angus said finally, dusting himself off as he stood up. At that her head jolted into his direction. She stood with a start, her grip tight on her staff and Angus flinched, starting to worry that maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe this  _ was  _ an evil organization and Taako, Merle and Magnus had fooled him.

Seeing his reaction though the Director eased up somewhat, loosening her grip on her staff and sitting back down. She wasn’t taking her eyes off of him the entire time though. Angus supposed he couldn't blame her for that.

“Hello, you must be Angus. Several of my employees have had quite a bit to say about you,” she said, and Angus nodded.

“Sorry about causing so much trouble. Is Ms. Killian okay? I didn’t mean to hurt her badly,” he asked, and this time the Director smiled slightly at that.

“She’s fine, she’s much tougher than that,” she said, and Angus nodded.

“That’s what I thought,” he said.

“Angus, I’ve been told everything you said to Avi and Killian, but I need to know the truth. Why are you on this base?” the Director asked, and he couldn’t blame her for wanting to get straight to the point after he’d given her such a runaround.

“Well, I guess I should introduce myself properly then. My name is Angus McDonald, and I am the world’s greatest detective,” he said with pride. There wasn’t much of a point hiding that fact right now. He wanted answers, and she knew he’d drank from their voidfish thing. She couldn’t block things out from him anymore.

He expected her to look like she didn’t believe him or something like that, which was the usual reaction. Instead she blinked, a look of startled surprise on her face.

“McDonald?” she asked, like she recognized the name. He guessed maybe she’d heard about him from the three reclaimers.

“Yep, that’s me,” he affirmed.

_ “You’re _ the detective that has been looking into the missing people cases?” she asked, and that caught him by surprise. He hadn’t expected her to know about that.

“Yeah, I was looking into those and they’re what led me here,” he explained.

“We’ve been… aware of your investigation for a while now,” she said, seeming to choose her words carefully. “It’s been, well it’s been a bit of a thorn in our side.”

“More or less of a thorn in your side than I’ve been over the past day?” he asked, and he hadn’t meant to cause so much trouble, but there was no way he’d be able to get the answers he needed to otherwise.

“Less, but surprisingly not by much,” she said, and Angus supposed that was fair.

“Madame Director, what happened to those people. You’ve blocked them out somehow, haven’t you? But if you did that with everyone who worked for you it wouldn’t explain how I could still remember Mr. Taako and Mr. Merle and Mr. Magnus,” he asked. If she was getting straight to the point, then so was he. She frowned somewhat at that, looking at him closer.

“How do you know the reclaimers?” she asked, and oh, he guessed they hadn’t mentioned him after all.

“I met them when they were looking for one of the relics on the Rockport Limited. I helped them solve the mystery and get it, that’s how I knew those missing people had to be connected to whatever organization they were in. The block on them felt the same as when they would talk in static,” he explained.

“Oh, they had said something about a boy detective on the train,” she said, an expression on her face like it was all starting to come together.

“You never answered my question,” Angus pressed, and the Director sighed.

“When someone in on organization dies, it’s a very- what we do here is very dangerous. Casualties are unfortunately an inevitability, but when someone dies, we have to erase them from the world below. We can’t have people looking and asking questions and discovering us. Of course, that didn’t seem to work out too well in this case,” she said. That made sense, from what Angus could tell, she was giving him the truth.

“What  _ are _ you doing here. I never got the feeling that those three had been evil, and everyone here has been very nice to me, but you’re gathering these super powerful artifacts right? Why do you want them?” he asked.

The Director spent a long moment staring at him, like she was weighing the pros and cons of letting him in on this information. After all, even though she couldn’t magically block things from him anymore, she still had the power to  _ not _ tell him what he wanted to know.

After a beat she stood up, and when she spoke she seemed to be addressing him a bit more formally and seriously than she had been before.

“Angus, we are the Bureau of Balance. Our mission is to collect powerful arcane artifacts known as the Grand Relics and destroy them, so that they can not continue to bring destruction and terror to the world. We’ve already gathered and destroyed two, one of which you assisted our reclaimers with, and they are out on a mission at this moment gathering the third,” she said.

“Well, that sounds like a very good cause Madame,” Angus said, and it really did.

“Normally, when someone joins our organization, they are required to go through a sort of trial of initiation. These trials are different depending on the position offered. For instance, our seekers, the ones who search for information on relics and their whereabouts, are often challenged to locate powerful or ancient items. Nothing as strong as a grand relic, but still comparatively hard,” she continued, and Angus had a feeling he knew where this was going.

“You though,  _ you,” _ she said, disbelief in her voice as she sat back down in her chair. “Angus McDonald, I’m not sure you realize what it is you just did. You found our organization, despite the fact that you weren’t inoculated. That alone should be impossible.”

“I realized that, so I stopped trying to look for you and started looking for other items like the one they’d been after on the train,” Angus explained.

“Right, and not only that, but you managed to avoid us in our own base for over a _ day. _ You got down to the voidfish’s chamber and inoculated yourself,” she said, sounding more and more flabbergasted the longer she went on.

“Did anyone ever get Johann out of the vent?” he asked.

“Yes, Johann is fine,” she insisted, and that was good to hear.

“Angus, any test I could give you would pale in comparison to what you’ve just done. So, I would like officially offer you a job as a seeker for the Bureau of Balance. Specifically, those three you met on the train are our top reclaimers. We need someone who can act as a remote source of information to help them through gathering a relic,” she said.

Which, honestly this was a lot to take in at once. He’d been going pretty nonstop for the past day, he was tired and pretty hungry.

He was also most excited about this than he’d ever been about anything.

“I would love to join the bureau Madame Director. I’m sorry about having to go so overboard with my application, but most people look at my age and throw it right out unless I do something really spectacular,” he said, only partially joking.

“I suppose that’s fair,” she said, before standing up from her desk. “Well then, let’s go get you fitted for a bracer. Hopefully the boys will be back with the third relic soon and we can tell them the news,” she said, and Angus smiled brightly at that.

“Thank you Madame Director. I’m sure it’ll be a pleasure working with you,” he said happily.

“As am I,” she said, starting to lead him out of the room.

Angus followed suit, a spring in his step at the prospect of all this.

He’d managed to see a lot of the Bureau over the last day, and he had a strong feeling that he was going to like it here.

**Author's Note:**

> the idea came up in the taz fic writers discord and I just had to run away with it. Angus is a chaos child who doesn't care about the rules if it means solving a mystery and I love him. Also, writing this has absolutely convinced me that Angus started off as a rogue when they met him and multiclassed into wizard later on. 
> 
> As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


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